Observing Fate
by kattracks9599
Summary: The Final Battle has just ended. Hermione, having witnessed the memories Professor Snape left behind decides to go back and change his fate. But things never go as planned when Ron is near by. Hermione gets to watch as her younger self grows up at Hogwarts and sees much more than she ever bargained for.
I do not own anything related to Harry Potter…

Please review. This will be a very slow burn between Hermione and Severus. There will be some Harry and Draco added in for good measure along the way. It will be rated M for later (much later) chapters. If any of this offends you please don't read!

This story will be following mainly the movies.

This story starts at the conclusion of the final battle.

Chapter 1

The remaining members from the Order of the Phoenix were meeting in the Headmasters office. Professor McGonagall stood in front of the Headmasters desk and Harry was standing next to the pensieve as if defending it. Kingsley and Arthur stood together in quiet conversation. It was Molly and Ron that were the most vocal about Snape's deception. They both wanted to see what Harry was privy to, not believing that Professor Snape had turned out to be one of the good guys in the end. There were not many of the original members left at the end of the second war. Surprisingly those that were left had allowed Fleur, George, Luna and Neville to attend the meeting.

Hermione was the only one not currently listening to what Harry was saying, she had already heard it all; seen it as a matter of fact. After Voldemort was killed Harry had grabbed her and pulled her upstairs while everyone was coming to grips with the fact that it was finally over. He showed her what he had seen that made him go out and meet Voldemort that night. She knew that he felt that he had to sacrifice himself to save everyone and she really had believed that she would never see him again. It made her reevaluate everything that she thought she had known over the last seven years; mainly regarding Dumbledore.

He was attempting to explain that Professor Snape had been on their side the whole time. She understood why he didn't want all of them to view the memories. Most, if not all of them, were very personal and showed Professor Snape at his most vulnerable. It made her reconsider every interaction they had ever had with him since starting at Hogwarts. What he must have gone thru and had to endure at the hands of Voldemort to maintain his cover. She was distracted from her thoughts when Harry's yelling increased in volume.

"You guys are not listening to me!" Harry said to the group, all but stomping his foot. The order members were all attempting to convince him that they needed to see the memories for themselves before they would believe that Snape had been on their side.

"I already told you that Dumbledore was sick." He addressed the group standing before him. "He convinced Snape that he needed to kill him so that Voldemort would continue trust him." He looked at the group sadly. "Now that I know what was really going on, it has shed some light on what I saw that night Dumbledore died. If you have to look at someone's memories, look at mine. Snape could have retaliated. I kept attacking him as he fled the castle." Molly kept trying to talk over him. She was trying to convince Professor McGonagall that with the loss of Fred, they of all people, had a right to Snape's memories and were hoping that she would overrule Harry.

Hermione turned and looked at Hagrid who was sitting against the wall closest to the door. He was not participating in the conversation any more than she was, but for very different reasons. He looked to be in shock. Hagrid had a very big heart and felt things deeply. She abruptly got up from her chair and walked over to him.

"Hagrid." She sat and leaned against him, taking comfort in the contact. He didn't say anything, just reached over and pulled her close. Even though she was now nineteen, she still felt like a small child being comforted by a much larger adult. They sat like that while the arguing continued. The Weasley's were all against Snape, even Ron. She felt that had more to do with the loss of Fred than anything else. They needed someone to blame for how things had turned out and Snape was a good target; he did kill Dumbledore after all.

"Hagrid, I need you to do something for me." Hermione said in a hushed tone. She didn't want the others in the room to over hear her request. She felt him react to her voice so she knew he was listening even though he didn't respond verbally.

"We left Professor Snape's body down in the boat house. We were in a hurry to get back up here. Can you go get him and put him with the rest of the members that didn't survive." She held her breath at the request not sure how he would take it. He was either firmly on one side or the other. He finally spoke for the first time since the battle ended.

"You saw the memories?" He asked quietly.

"Yes." Was all she could think to say.

"So he was on our side the whole time? Even with everything that he did not only as headmaster, but killing Dumbledore?" Hermione felt like he deserved an explanation given what she was asking him to do.

"Yes." She sighed before continuing. "Dumbledore was sick. He had about a year to live and he knew that Draco had been tasked by Voldemort to kill him. He felt that if Professor Snape were to do it instead than it would cement Voldemort's trust in him." She paused for a minute trying to decide how to continue. "Ultimately, that's what got him killed."

"What do I tell them downstairs? You know they will ask." He started to get up from the floor.

"Tell them we have new information and that he was on our side." She leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes.

All she could see was the look in Professor Snape's eyes over and over and how it must have felt for him to die knowing that everyone in the Order believed him to be a traitor. And even though she, Harry and Ron had been there as witnesses he had died truly alone. What brought her out of her memories was the silence that had fallen over the room, apparently a decision had been made.

Professor McGonagall stood in front of the pensieve, while Harry stood next to her looking resigned to the situation.

"So we are all in agreement. I will view the memories and relay all pertinent information. I will also be looking for anything that may lead me to believe that the memories may have been altered." Harry started to defend Professor Snape for what felt like the hundredth time in the last hour.

"I know what altered memories look like Professor. These were not changed."

"Mr. Potter, Professor Snape was a master of Occlumency, it's why he was so successful as a spy. Do you truly believe that if he wanted to alter his memories to show himself in a better light that you would know the difference?"

"But why would he do it? He knew that he was dying, he didn't have a reason to lie." Harry was beginning to feel that his input would never be taken seriously by the original members of the Order. They had been making all the decisions and keeping information from him since the beginning.

"This needs to be done Mr. Potter. The sooner the better as there are still other matters that must be attended to rather soon." He sighed resigning himself to what was about to happen and hoped that Professor Snape would not haunt him for it.

He took that vial that held the memories and poured them back into the pensieve. He had until this moment refused to give them to anyone. He also had no intention of leaving them to anyone else and would collect them as soon as the Professor was done.

Hermione watched the whole scene with a sense of detachment. While Harry had been defending the memories, she was coming up with her own plan. One that involved the time turner she had stashed in her bag and saving Professor Snape. She had been trying to work out the details in her mind of what she would need. A potion to counteract the venom, one to replenish blood loss and another to heal the throat wound. The more she thought about it however, the more she was sure that to heal the throat wound would need a healing spell and not a potion of some kind. So a trip to the library, if was still intact, would be in order. She tried thinking back to all the books that she had read in the last seven years. She didn't think that any of them covered such a spell. There were healing spells of course, but they were for minor cuts and broken bones. The damage to his neck was much worse than she could currently handle on her own.

The hard part would be the timing. She knew that there was a window of about ten seconds from when Voldemort left to when they had entered the room. It would be the only window she had unless she could stop him from going in. However, she was afraid that would alter the timeline if he knew he was going to die.

She slowly stood up and made her way out the door. No one in the room was paying her any attention, they were all intently watching the pensieve. Once out of the room, she made her way down the stairs and thru the hallways that were partially destroyed from the fight. There was damage everywhere she looked. The pictures that were still hanging on the walls were either abandoned or had few inhabitants shaking their heads and mourning the destruction of the castle.

She worked her way down to the dungeons conversing with few people along the way. She was going over the plan in her head and making adjustments as needed. Soon she found herself standing in front of Professor Snape's personal store room. She had only been in here once before and that was in their second year when she had taken the ingredients she needed for the polyjuice potion.

She pulled her wand out and pointed it at the door.

"Alohomora." She heard the door unlock, but still dared not enter. It was Professor Snape's personal space after all, who knew what sort of wards he had put up to keep people out. She was not sure if the wards would stay in place after his death or if they would automatically come down. Given however that he wouldn't want to kill a student (She hoped) Hermione decided it was worth the risk.

"Here goes nothing!" She reached for the handle of the door. When nothing happened she slowly pushed it open. Again nothing happened. With a sigh of relief, she entered the room and shut the door. She looked with a since of wonderment wishing she had more time. There was floor to ceiling shelves, stocked full with potions and ingredients that she could only guess at.

There were so many potions and ingredients in fact she was sure she could spend months if not years trying to learn what they all did. At that moment she decided that should she actually be able to save him, she was going to hound him until he taught her everything he could. She wanted to work alongside the brilliant potions master. Not only potions though, she wanted to learn everything that he was willing to teach her. Even if it meant finding a way to force his cooperation, but she would worry about that later.

In the middle of the room was a wooden table with several empty cauldrons. There were empty bottles organized by height at the edge of the table. Under it were tall glass containers with various plants waiting to be used in whatever new concoction Professor Snape had planned. She turned slowly taking in the room. She ran her fingers slowly over the table noticing that there was no dust anywhere in the room and everything was almost lovingly taken care of.

The thought of Professor Snape never walking into this room or any other in the castle almost brought her to her knees. Even knowing that he would not be walking in the door, she could clearly picture his outrage at her for daring to invade his personal space. In her mind she could see him rushing into the room slamming the door against the wall causing the bottles on the shelfs to rattle. His clock billowing behind him as if it had a mind of his own. Grabbing her by the arms and pushing her against the table…Hermione shook herself out of her fantasy. Wait, fantasy? Where did that come from? "Get it together Granger, you have work to do." She said out loud. It was time to find what she needed and go bring him back.

She knew that he had the anti-venom potion, he had created it to save Arthur Weasley when Voldemort had Nagini attack him. She had no doubt that he would have made enough that should it be needed again it would be readily available. She just had to find it…but where to look?

Hermione stood in the middle of the room and tried to imagine how she would arrange everything if this were her area. Alphabetical order would be her first choice, but what would he name it? If it was listed as an anti-venom than it should be pretty easy, however, if he had felt the need to hide it should any Death Eaters ever make an appearance than she could be in real trouble since it could be listed as anything.

Well, let's get to it than. She thought to herself. She turned to the wall closest to the door. The shelfs in the room were around six feet tall and bottles of all shapes and sizes were covering every available surface. Most of them looked like ingredients and were not labeled. She didn't recognize a lot of them, but some of them did. She decided to start at eye level and work her way around. Hopefully this would give her an idea if she needed to look up or down.

Angel's Trumpet Drought…Amortentia…Alihosty Drought. She moved the front vials and various bottles out of the way. One was labeled Antidote to Common Poisons and another Antidote to Uncommon Poisons. She was fairly sure that neither one of these would work and it was a venom, not a poison that had aided in killing him. She continued to look through the ones closes to her.

There was a Befuddlement Draught next to a Blood Root Potion. She was beginning to think that she would not use the alphabet as a means of sorting her potions in the event she was able to make this many. Keeping a Befuddlement Draught (causes the taker to be confused and reckless) next to a Bloodroot Potion (which is known to be an extremely poisonous potion) was maybe not the best idea.

She almost jumped for joy when she came across the Blood-Replenishing potion. She didn't find it too surprising that the potion was a deep red and looked thick. It was in a very small vial, so she assumed that not that much would be needed. She placed it in her beaded bag very gently before continuing her search. She was slowly inspecting each vial and reading the labels. She had been searching for well over an hour and was still not half way through the room. She crouched down to search the bottom middle shelf and began moving some of the potions out of the way to get to the ones in the back.

After moving several bottles to the side, her hand encountered a box that she would not have seen otherwise. Pulling it out she was extremely surprised to see her name on it. Sitting cross legged on the floor she pulled the box to her. She ran her hands over the rough surface trying to figure out why he would have something like that hidden in his lab. She slowly opened the top of the box and stared in shocked silence. Inside were several potions, all of them with her handwriting on them. She realized that these were the potions that he had them making over the last seven years…her successful ones anyways.

She started pulling them out one by one. Remembering the scowls that she received from the feared potions master when she would be the first to approach him with the finished product. She never once was she told that the potion was made correctly or heard him tell her good job. His comments were always some variation of "So the insufferable know-it-all is the first one done…again!" Always loud enough for the rest of the class to hear and usually followed by a dirty look. So to literally find evidence that he kept the potions was astonishing to say the least. Some of the early years contained potions such as a burn-healing paste. She remembered the very disgusting smell that had emanated from that one and the smell had stayed with them all for days. It was even worse for the students that made it incorrectly.

There was a calming drought and a confusing concoction. There was the deflating draught that he had them make at the start of their third year after Harry had accidently swollen his aunt in anger. It was in her sixth year that some of the potions got a bit more interesting such as the dreamless sleep potion and draught of living death. She was perplexed as to how he had gotten his hands on those since Professor Slughorn had been teaching potions at that point. She had been so angry with herself for not getting the draught of living death potion right the first time, that she had spent half the night with Slughorn perfecting it.

By the time she got to the last of the potions she had tears rolling down her face. She pulled out a small vial of bright orange liquid not recognizing it. There was no writing or anything to give any indication of what was inside. But she knew that this was something that she didn't make. She slowly began to smile; it was the perfect hiding place for the potion. Other than Snape who had hidden it, she would be the only one that could possibly know that this was not one of hers. If anyone else had come looking they never would have found it. She knew that it could only be one thing, and that was the anti-venom serum to counteract Nagini's bite.

She quickly stashed to potion in her bag and started to put all the potions back into the box. She knew that if…no, when, her plan was successful she didn't want him coming back to a mess in his lab. He was going to be mad enough that she had raided his private stores (again) and the cleaner she left it the better. One more part of the puzzle and she would be ready to go back and save Professor Snape. Time to head to the library.

She left the storeroom and locked it behind her. She had been tempted to leave her bag with the potions and time turner locked inside, but ultimately decided that she was never letting that bag out of her possession. It had saved their lives on so many occasions. Plus, once she found the information on healing his wounds she wanted to be able to head straight to her room in the Gryffindor tower to use the time turner.

She was really hoping that she could get this done before anyone realized what she was up to. She didn't want people trying to stop her from saving him. Hermione made her way out of the dungeons and up to the main floor of the castle. Greatly saddened by the continued destruction all around her. There was a ton of rock dust all over everything and everyone. She could see many people milling around outside the great hall. Families inside mourning the loss of loved ones. Students sitting on the stairs leading down to the great hall taking comfort in being with each other.

The people that did notice her passing didn't approach her. A few nudged the person next to them and whispered behind their hands. Keeping her head down and clasping her purse to her chest she continued to head to the library. She started to fear for what she might find when instead of rock dust she began walking on the pages of books. She could see the doors of the library had been blown off their hinges and books strewn all over the floor. She walked inside devastated at the destruction of the once beloved room that she spent most of the last seven years. First and second year students were making a useless attempt to clean up the mess.

She stopped a Ravenclaw first year.

"What happened here?" Hermione asked.

"Some of us barricaded the door when the fighting started as Headmaster Snape told us." She looked tired as she explained the situation.

"Wait." Hermione stopped her. "Headmaster Snape told you to hide? When did you see him?" She was so confused. Even though she knew that Snape was on their side, she was trying to figure out when he could have possibly given them direction.

"It was in one of his DADA classes at the beginning of the year... 'If we should ever find the castle under attack the library had a good door to hide behind.'" She attempted to use his infliction when talking to students. She smiled sadly at the memory. "He then told us that would be the best place for a bunch of cowards to hide." The girl looked at the floor in shame having admitted that they were hiding. "He only said the last part to keep his cover…right?"

"You did the right thing; you stayed out of the way and kept your head down." Hermione didn't want these students feeling bad about hiding instead of fighting. It was not the place for first and second years. "And you did exactly what the Headmaster of this school told you to do. Don't feel bad about that." She put a comforting hand on the young girl's shoulder.

"Do you know if any of the books in the medical section survived? Most of the advanced healing spells would have been in the restricted section."

"I don't think so, it seemed like they were more interested in destroying the as many books as possible than attacking us." She looked confused. "Why would they do that."

"I don't know. But I want to go take a look at what's left back there." She turned to walk to the back of the library. The metal gates that normally protected the restricted section were bent out of shape and tossed haphazardly across the room. This part of the library was completely destroyed.

She leaned against one of the bookshelf's out of sight of the students. She slid down and sat on the floor laying forehead on her bent knees trying not to let the overwhelming since of despair and grief consume her. She wasn't ready to think about all the people that they had lost in the last twenty-four hours. How she had almost lost Harry. No! I refused to concede defeat she thought to herself as she climbed to her feet. She would bring back Professor Snape, knowing that she would be unable to save anyone else would be the hard part.

Hermione started to make her way out of the library. She did so with a causal touch here and there with students that she had never really known, some whom she had never met. But they all seemed to understand her need for silence. She turned as she left the library to find forty some-odd students standing in the entry way. Some had tears sliding down their faces, others openly crying, but all of them realizing that nothing was ever going to be the same again.

She gave them a watery smile before heading to the hospital wing. All the healing was taking place in the great hall since there was more room for all the wounded; and the dead. If she couldn't find what she needed there, she didn't know where to go next. It wasn't like she could ask.

She stopped half way to the hospital wing wanting to smack herself in the forehead. She didn't need a spell to heal him, she could place him in stasis long enough to get him to Madam Pomfrey. That was a spell that she was familiar enough with that she was sure she could make it work.

She turned and started running to the Gryffindor tower, ignoring all the looks from people she passed along the way, even those that called her name. She was on a mission and nothing was going to stop her. Except maybe the fat lady in the portrait who was concealing the entrance to the common room. The Lady was blowing her nose into a handkerchief muttering to herself.

"Password." The Lady finally asked. Hermione started at her for a long minute. When no password was forthcoming the Lady looked up.

"I don't know it." She whispered. "I wasn't at school this year."

"Is the fighting done? No one has been sending word of what is going on." The Fat Lady sniffled.

"Yes it's over. Voldemort is dead. For good this time."

The portal to the tower opened and Hermione looked up in shock.

The Fat Lady gave her a watery smile. "I know who you are Miss Granger. No password is needed this time. But you may want to learn it, if I'm ever not here it will be required for entrance."

After everything that had happed it was this act of kindness that almost caused her to finally break down. With a stifled sob she entered the empty Gryffindor common room.

She looked around the room. Nothing had changed from the years she had spent here. There was no damage to show that the people that would be residing here in the future had gone through a very traumatic event. Standing here, she could almost believe that none of that had happened. All her friends were still alive; her parents were waiting for her at home.

She shook her head sadly. This room my not show any changes from everything that had happened, but she certainly did. Her Jeans were torn and her sweater filthy. Those downstairs were not the only ones covered in rock from the battle. Bits and pieces were still falling out of her hair every time she moved.

Hermione retrieved her wand from her pocket and opened her purse.

"Accio time turner." The gold neckless flew out of her purse and into her hand. She almost dropped her wand to catch it. She turned it over in her had a few times, reading the inscription out loud for probably the thousandth time since she received it.

"I mark the hours, every one, Nor have I yet outrun the Sun. My use and value, unto you, are gauged by what you have to do." She placed the chain around her neck.

She had originally given Professor McGonagall the neckless back after they had saved Sirius a few years ago. She had kept this one with her after Professor Dumbledore gave it to her a year ago and hinted that she may have use for it. He smiled when he handed it her and told her to use it wisely. He looked at her over the rim of his glasses, his head tilted down as he looked to be contemplating his next words.

"I have made a few changes Miss Granger." He had told her. "Just remember, the time line will accept small changes over a period of time, but be very careful not to change significant events." He had than dismissed her from his office and reminded her not to tell anyone that she had it.

Hermione had calculated that she needed to go back about twenty-four hours so that she could be in the correct place to save Professor Snape. She had just reached for the small knob on the side of the hour glass when Harry and Ron burst into the common room.

"Hermione, didn't you hear us calling you?" Ron demanded to know.

"Actually Ron, I didn't. I have too much on my mind." She was still holding the time turner in her hand. She knew that Ron would have no idea what it was, but Harry would.

"Hermione!" Harry exclaimed. "What are you up to and where did you get that?" He demanded to know. "You told me you gave it back to Professor McGonagall after the thing with Sirius." He took a step closer to her. "It's why we couldn't go back and save him again."

"Go back?" Ron butted in. "Go back where?" Ron was looking between the two of them with a confused look on his face.

"Harry I didn't lie to you, I did give it back; there was no way to go and save Sirius. I'm sorry." Tears filled her eyes. "Professor Dumbledore gave it to me a year ago. The last time I saw him actually. He told me that I would know when to use it. I think he meant now."

"Why didn't you tell me?" Harry demanded.

"He told me not to tell anyone about it. You know how time travel is Harry, I couldn't risk it."

"What are you guys talking about?" Ron yelled getting their attention.

Hermione turned and looked at him.

"This…" she held up the time turner "will allow me to go back in time. It's how I was taking all those classes in our third year." She glanced at Harry. "It's also how we disappeared that night in the hospital wing only to reappear seconds later. We had gone back and saved Sirius and Buck Beak."

"And you never told me about it." He crossed his arms over his chest. He got a strange look on his face. "We could go back and save everyone, including Fred." A look of hope crossed his face. He started to reach his hand out to touch it.

Hermione stepped back out of his reach giving him a sad look.

"No Ron, I'm sorry, but we can't save Fred. There were too many witnesses to the explosion. I can't let people see me when I go back."

"Then why are you going back if you can't save them?" Harry demanded.

"There is one person that I can save." She told them. She had no intention of telling them who or why. If she were being honest she refused to examine to far the reason she felt it necessary to save one man when so many good people had died. She turned her back to her best friends. She didn't want to see their faces when the figured out who she meant.

"Harry, meet me down in the potions classroom. I'll see you in a minute if everything works the way I planned. Please bring Madam Pomfrey with you. I'm going to need her help." She started to spin the hour glass very slowly, not wanting to miscalculate how far back she went.

"The potions class room!" Ron yelled. "You don't mean you're going to go back and save the greasy git instead of my brother." Ron started to reach for her to stop her.

"Snape? You're going back for him?" Harry said at the same time Ron figured it out. Harry moved to intercept Hermione who had stepped farther out of reach.

Somehow, Ron managed to trip bumping into Harry who crashed into Hermione. Ah he hit her it caused her hand to slip and she watched in horror as the hour glass began to spin uncontrollably. She turned to Harry and Ron with a frightened look on her face as she slowly started to disappear. They both reached for her at the same time but she was no longer there. They looked at each other before running out of the room to grab Madam Pomfrey and head to the potions classroom unsure of what to expect when they got there.

So this is the end of the first chapter. After this starts the really fun stuff and some really great interactions between our two main characters. Hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I have loved writing it. Don't forget to tell me what you think.


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